NEW DELHI: The AIIMS authorities have allowed “self prescription“ facility for all EHS beneficiaries, who are permitted by law to prescribe medicines from January 1. According to the office memorandum, it has been noted that employees have to wait in long queues for getting their prescribed medicines from the EHS pharmacy and sometimes they have to return empty handed due to non availability of medicines. This not only causes inconvenience to the employees and their family members but also compromises patient care as employees are away from duty to collect their medicines. Officials said only a pre-defined list of medicines, which will be finalised by EHS by December 31, will be allowed to be prescribed from January next year. “Outside the defined list of medicines will also be permitted under self-prescription in case of first instance of any illness. Later appropriate consultation from the department concerned will be required,” the directives stated. Besides, an in-house senior resident will be identified as EHS SR by all clinical departments to enable consultation and prescription for all staff members without having to visit the EHS facility. The pharmacy will be operational from 7am-10 pm from January 1 instead of current hours from 8am to 8 pm in order to facilitate employees to collect their medicines outside their duty hours. A sms alert will be sent to the beneficiary when the medicine package is ready for collection. “Medicine collection from EHS pharmacy will be under video surveillance in order to know which person is collecting medicines against respective EHS cards,” stated the directives. Senior resident Dr Vinay Kumar said that this decision will not only save time for the employees and doctors but also improve the patient care facilities as no one will have to take a leave for such work. To make all institutional facilities digital, EHS books for serving and retired employees and their dependents will be replaced by a smart card and linked to phone app / web portal by March 31, 2023. “All consultations and prescriptions in EHS will be electronic and a record of the same will be available to the employee in his smart card from April 1, 2023,” said directives issued by the director. AIIMS to assign patients’ beds to MBBS students to collect patient feedback about servicesIn a bid to develop social and clinical skills among MBBS students and improve patient care services in the institute, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) has decided to assign a “bed” to each student in the clinical departments for getting patients’ feedback about various facilities and services being provided to them, including treatment. The students will be assigned the bed within 6 months of joining the institute. An order issued by the director of the institute Dr M Srinivas said that students will maintain an e-logbook of their daily visits to the in-patients occupying the specific bed. They will visit the patient and get updates every day during hospital visiting hours after their classes/postings. Students will wear a white coat with their names embroidered on their pockets during their visits, the order stated. According to information the proposed feedback will include about cleanliness – bed, sheets changed daily or not ; condition of the washrooms, water supply, quality of food served or any other suggestion for improvement of patient care services. The students can provide feedback to the treating team of doctors and nurses. The patient information and feedback will be entered into the e-logbook, which will be shown or checked by mentors allotted to the students on a weekly basis. Representative of the students union said that this is a great move. “It will not only improve doctor-patient relationship but also help in personality development,” said one of the students. Officials said that undergraduate students will be assigned mentors within the first month of joining the institute and each department will nominate a faculty member for coordinating the undergraduate mentorship activities.
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/aiims-delhi-allows-self-prescription-facility-for-all-ehs-beneficiaries/articleshow/95563465.cms